Watch out, Spotify: Sky Songs is go!

Sky Songs, the latest ad-free music streaming service, is now live, with over four million tracks in its database. The satellite broadcaster’s new web 2.0 venture may not be free – it starts at £6.49 per month – but it’s cheaper than Spotify Premium and doesn’t require a software installation – it runs directly from your web browser (as long as its Internet Explorer, Safari or Firefox).

We’ve been playing around with Sky Songs for a while and it’s a very decent alternative to Spotify. It lets you build playlists, simply pick an album you like and tag artists, albums, songs and even genres you like to make sure you get the relevant recommendations.

Streaming quality is 48kbps in the AAC+ format, which on paper seems a little disappointing when compared to Spotify’s 160kbps Vorbis streaming (or 320kbps for Spotify Premium users). Even so, sound quality seems decent, and the fact that you can use the service via a web browser on any PC or Mac is one advantage Sky Songs definitely has over its rival – it means you can easily access it at work or on holiday.

That said, users of Last.fm may well resent the fact that Sky Songs listens don’t “scrobble” into your music library (not yet, at least).

Sky Songs also doubles as a download service, with users who pay £6.49 per month entitled to download one album (from a selection) or 10 tracks during that period (in either 192kbps or 320kbps DRM-free MP3 format, depending on the album). Pay £7.99 a month and you’re entitled to 15 tracks, or any album. You’ll have to install a downloader application to buy music, but this’ll drop tunes automatically into your iTunes or Windows Media Player libraries.

You can head over to the Sky website and try it out now, and if you’re already a Sky Broadband customer you’ve got a very good reason to give it a spin: you’re entitled to try it for free for 30 days, plus download a £6.49 album.
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